On Terror

Terrorist drove a car into a pedestrian street and department store in Sweden. Many dead and wounded. People are aghast.

In Norway, they discovered a bomb that luckily did not explode yet.

People are shocked but this is what is happening, not to exaggerate, once a week in Israel. There is no week that a car did not roam into some children, women, civilians or a bomb explode in a coffee shop or on a bus, killing indiscriminately.

Are the terrors related?

I do not think so. The terror in Sweden, Norway, Paris, Berlin or London have nothing to do with Palestine.

None of the terrorists was a Palestinian like none of the terrorists in the Boston Marathon, or the one that threatened bombing Times Square. None of them were Palestinians, and the countries terrorized have nothing to do with Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

Most of the terrorists were born in the country they are terrorizing.

It can not be an attempt to take the country down like the Palestinian terrorists believe they can scare Israel into submission and the “Jewish colonialists” will go back to the country of their origin like the crusaders did.

In the case of France, Great Britain or Germany it could not be the goal of their terror. Those countries will survive.

So what is the purpose of the terror?

Is it a revenge to punish NATO countries that are occupying their land? But I am confused. Are not these NATO countries sending their sons and daughters to die there to bring democracy to them, emancipate them of dictatorships?

I believe there is no goal. The terror is an expression of the persons frustration. A manifestation of feeling like second class citizens. Kind of punishing with terror a society that does not fully accept them as equal.

How come the Jewish immigrants did not terrorize, although there was an anti-Semitic attitude and discrimination when they came in?

Jewish people were grateful for being alive and having a chance to survive. They worked at any job they could get and saved to educate their children and grandchildren. In three generations, the grandchildren of a seamstress or bath room attendant became a famous surgeon or a Nobel prize winner. They became part and parcel of the host society.

That is not the case with the Muslim culture. The expectation is to be equal here and now. It breeds anger and a mentally unbalanced person could become the next terrorist.

The solution in my opinion is on several axes:

Jail any religious leader that incites unrest.

Escalate the educational efforts, indoctrinating immigrants that the road to equality and belonging is through multigenerational education.

And the silent majority of the Muslim population must stop being silent. They must get organized to self control the messages delivered to the younger generation about discrimination.

Let me make one thing clear. My life has been saved by Albanian Muslims during the Second World War. I consult and work in Azerbaijan, a Muslim country.

I admire the Muslim people, the culture and the religion.

I do not believe it is the religion that is driving the terror. It is the feeling of deprivation, of inferiority caused by unrealistic expectations to be part of a hosting society in a hurry.

I’ve been reading Dr. Adizes’ blogs every now and then. Some writings are better than other, but maybe it’s the time for Dr. to stop thinking? Islam is much younger religion, and for him to speak of it in the way he is w/o turning to historic aspects is just ignorant…I’m also just thinking!

Ichak writes: I do not believe it is the religion that is driving the terror. It is the feeling of deprivation, of inferiority caused by unrealistic expectations to be part of a hosting society in a hurry.

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Ichak, when it comes to the current terror, which is being done mostly by ISIS, your belief is simply wrong.

The terrorism of ISIS is driven by their version of Islam.

Their terrorist acts are not random acts of despair. Rather they are part of a strategic vision to create a radical end times confrontation in accordance with their Islamic vision of millenarism, by bringing back the Caliphate.

One of the key mistakes that the West has been making is misunderstanding the intellectually rigorous rational behind ISIS as a movement.

Here is a very relevant article recently published in The Atlantic that goes into the details. I hope you will take the time to read it, and then share your comments on what it says:

Dear Ichak
In Our ”modern and scientific society”, we have to understand, explain, judge, about every situation and problem. There must be a cause, a culprit, that can be identified and neutralized. Your article ”on terror” is part of that intent.
But I do not think anyone can achieve this feat: to give an explanation or a judgment that can be shared by almost all the people involved in the issue of terrorism. I appreciate your thought and your culture very much, but the mission you assign to them in this case is simply impossible.
Another approach, which is that of spiritual traditions – not religions, but of their original essence – is to forgive and restore balance by “erasing memories”, by “cleansing”, and this first in the heart of each individual. It is a silent operation, where we just have to express our compassion for all the victims of all the attacks and for all those who fall into violent temptation.
This path is difficult because we have to detach ourselves from our sociocultural identities and accept to be incompetent with problems that go beyond our understanding.
With all my respect and affection
Dominique Racine

Koja
I agree. This was not a well reasoned thought through blog. All i tried to say is that we need to pit more energy intoneducation of immigrants to be integrated into the host society. As is they grow alienated and easy pray to isis
Thank you for pointing how weak was this blog

“Jewish people were grateful for being alive and having a chance to survive. They worked at any job they could get and saved to educate their children and grandchildren. In three generations, the grandchildren of a seamstress or bath room attendant became a famous surgeon or a Nobel prize winner. They became part and parcel of the host society.”

Dear Ichak, I am not a Jew but I am teaching Judaism in free time for several years.
Everyone else can learn a lot from Judaism.
I showed my own cognition of it with a small picture.
(Unfortunately I can not draw it here)

The heart is in the center.
In the heart are a hammer and an open book.

What does it mean?

1. HEART – Love in community; Integration ; SUCCESS = External integration/Internal disintegration. Entrophy strives to minimum.
(Dear Ichak, this is what I learned from you personally). Thank you for this.

Dear Ichak
I believe you should look at the person who orders the terror attack , not at the person who actually did it.
Usually a young person following orders from an older person.
The frustration you mentioned is a frustration of generations not of an individual person.

Dominique Racine writes: This [spiritual] path is difficult because we have to detach ourselves from our sociocultural identities and accept to be incompetent with problems that go beyond our understanding.

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I agree 100% Dominique that this is the only answer in the end, for all conflicts everywhere.

The challenge here is that this works well on the level of the individual (like you, for example). Your motivation is enlightenment, or higher consciousness, or oneness with God – however you name it.

But even for the individual, the persistence of our ego-self consciousness, presents an ongoing thorn in our side. On the verge of Buddhahood, Gotama found this thing – this entitity we call the ego-self – and he called it “the builder of this house of suffering”.

So as you look at the history of development of any spiritual movement regarding more than one person – this ego-self consciousness emerges as the great problem over and over again. We see it clearly in the western religions, and the eastern ones as well.

So what do we see? We see that this idea which can (maybe) work well for the serious seeker on The Path, really doesn’t scale very well. Our individual and corporate ego-self consciousness is a huge problem – and often a Gordian knot.

And of course, we see the same dynamic in marriages and extended family interactions as well.

At the same time, good scholarship is nothing to sneeze at nor avoid when trying to understand, deconstruct and potentially heal intractable conflicts. And that scholarship is necessary when it fact there is no possibility of healing.

An example of that from the western world would be Hitler. He was convinced that it was his divine calling to usher in the 1000 year Reich. He was also convinced that there was no ethical border to constrain his action. Gandhi said that his strategic use of pacificism against the British only worked because the British were constrained by their conscious. But (he pointed out) Hitler was not so constrained, and pacificism would not work.

We do have an analogous situation with ISIS/ISIL. It is important that our world leaders – Muslim and otherwise – understand this. As that article from the Atlantic pointed out, if ISIS gets to develop and expand it’s Caliphate, those more moderate Muslims will be its greatest enemies, because they consider more moderate Muslims the great barrier to their scriptural plan to rule the world.

This sense of “divine call” that they share with Hitler really must be both and intellectual and spiritual backdrop for considering what the world’s response should be. Should we try to put pressure on them, like we did in aparteid South Africe? Is there a DeClerk/Mandela coalition that can create a peaceful shift?

And if that’s not possible, what are our remaining options? Does a just war perspective make moral/ethical sense, as it did in WW2?

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Please note:

The insights presented in these blogs are the personal insight of Dr. Ichak Kalderon Adizes and do not necessarily express the opinion or position of the Adizes Institute or its staff individually or as a group.

DISCLAIMER: The insights presented in these blogs are the personal insight of Dr. Ichak Kalderon Adizes and do not necessarily express the opinion or position of the Adizes Institute or its staff individually or as a group.